Fun-filled, Hands-on Sustainable Lifestyle Events

Locations

Speaker Spotlight:

Making a Living on 1.5 Acres

Jean-Martin Fortier Les Jardins de la Grelinette

Jean-Martin Fortier is the author of The Market Gardener: A Successful Grower’s Handbook for Small-Scale Organic Farming and in this workshop, he shares in detail the techniques, tools and technology that make his market garden productive and profitable. It is popularly supposed that the small-scale market garden can no longer be economically viable, because it cannot compete with the economies of scale of the larger growers. But is that so? Les Jardins de la Grelinette is a micro-farm located in eastern Quebec, just north of the American border. Despite growing on 1.5 acres of land, owners Fortier and Maude-Hélène Desroches manage to feed more than 200 families through their thriving community-supported agriculture (CSA) program and seasonal market stands. For more than a decade the market garden has provided their only household income. Their operation generates close to $140,000 in sales with a profit margin of about 45%. The secret of their success resides in the low-tech, high-yield methods of production they have developed by continuously focusing on growing better rather than growing bigger, making their operation more lucrative and viable in the process. In this workshop, Fortier provides an overview of all aspects of vegetable production at Les Jardins de la Grelinette, demonstrating how adopting intensive methods of production can lead to the optimization of a cropping system. He discusses how to set up a micro-farm by designing biologically intensive cropping systems, all with negligible capital outlay; how to farm without a tractor, minimizing fossil fuel inputs through the use of the best hand tools, appropriate machinery and minimum tillage practices; and how to grow mixed vegetables systematically with attention to weed and pest management best approach practices.

MOTHER EARTH NEWS Stage | Sunday, 2:30-3:30 PM

Speaker BioJean-Martin Fortier is a farmer, writer and educator specializing in organic and bio-intensive cropping practices. He is passionate about demonstrating how small farms can play an important role in rebuilding the food system by growing edibles sustainably for profit on a small community-based scale. Fortier’s acclaimed book, The Market Gardener: A Successful Grower’s Handbook for Small-Scale Organic Farming tells the story of how he and his wife started farming on 1.5 acres, yet grossed more than $100,000 per acre, enough to financially sustain their family over a decade. The book has been popular with both urban and rural readers, having sold more than 40,000 copies since its release. It won the 2015 American Horticultural Society book award.

10 Threads That Successful Startup Farms Knit Together

Joel Salatin Polyface Farm

Some farm startups flounder and others fly. The ones that successfully get off the ground share common characteristics. In this extremely practical presentation, Pitchfork Pulpit farmer Joel Salatin explains these threads. From emotional conceptions about the land to time and motion studies, this far-ranging performance gives everyone a farm road map to success.

Speaker BioJoel Salatin is a third-generation, beyond organic farmer and author whose family owns and operates Polyface Farm in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. The farm produces salad bar beef, pigaerator pork, pastured poultry and forage-based rabbits, and direct markets everything to 5,000 families, 50 restaurants and 10 retail outlets. A prolific author, Salatin’s nine books to date include both how-to and big picture themes. The farm features prominently in Michael Pollan’s New York Times best-seller The Omnivore’s Dilemma and the award-winning documentary Food, Inc.

Perma-What? How you can create your own paradise homestead with permaculture

Jessi Bloom N.W. Bloom EcoLogical Landscapes

What is permaculture and can it help us to create a more sustainable future? Jessi Bloom shares step-by-step instructions, plus her favorite tips, inspirations and great plants for beautiful and abundant homesteads and lives!

MOTHER EARTH NEWS Stage | Saturday, 10:00-11:00 AM

Speaker Bio

Jessi Bloom is a best-selling author, award-winning ecological designer, Certified Professional Horticulturist and ISA-Certified Arborist who strongly emphasizes ecological systems, sustainability and self-sufficiency in her work. She is passionate about animals, permaculture and making functional gardens beautiful!

Can Do Easy Canning

Nan K. Chase Storey Publishing

Discover how safe, easy and economical it is to preserve food and beverages by canning. Nothing makes a family more secure than having a well-stocked pantry, and canning ensures that no one runs short even during paralyzing blizzards, power outages or other disruptions. This proven method helps cut energy use and curb global pollution: Why drive to a grocery store when you already have your favorite foods as close as your cupboard! Canning the surplus cuts waste when you have a large harvest, and provides a way to combine and preserve your best crops in imaginative ways. The workshop covers equipment, sanitation practices and step-by-step techniques.

MOTHER EARTH NEWS Stage | Saturday, 11:30-12:30 PM

Speaker BioNan K. Chase is the co-author, with DeNeice C. Guest, of Drink the Harvest: Making and Preserving Juices, Wines, Meads, Teas and Ciders, and the author of Eat Your Yard! With more than 30 years of home canning experience, Chase has canned everything from applesauce to prickly pear cactus juice, providing her family and friends with delicious, nutritious, and memorable food and beverage. Originally an investigative reporter for a small town newspaper in North Carolina, with several press association awards to her credit, Chase has also written for such publications as The New York Times and Southern Living, and she took home a blue ribbon for her crabapple jelly at the North Carolina Mountain State Fair. She lectures extensively on garden topics, and the rest of the time tends to her garden in Asheville, North Carolina.

30-Minute Farmers’ Cheese Flavored with Herbs and Edible Flowers

Claudia Lucero Urban Cheesecraft

Best-selling author of One-Hour Cheese, Claudia Lucero demonstrates how easy and fun it can be to make a delicious and simple farmers’ cheese in just 30 minutes. See the entire process from carton of milk to final cheese and then to flavoring and decorating with fresh and dry herbs and edible flowers.

Speaker BioClaudia Lucero enjoys getting new cheesemakers started with Urban Cheesecraft and her D.I.Y. Cheese Kits. She has partnered with Williams-Sonoma on custom cheesemaking kits and recently wrote the book One-Hour Cheese, which shows beginners how to make 16 fresh cheeses via step-by-step photos. The book is found where books are sold and the kits can be found on www.UrbanCheesecraft.com.

Growing Power and the Good Food Revolution

Will Allen Growing Power

The son of a sharecropper, Will Allen had no intention of ever becoming a farmer himself. But after years in professional basketball and as an executive, Allen cashed in his retirement fund for a 2-acre plot a half mile away from Milwaukee’s largest public housing project, an area with only convenience stores and fast-food chains to serve the needs of its residents. In the face of financial challenges and daunting odds, Allen built Growing Power, the country’s pre-eminent urban farm: a food and educational center that now produces enough vegetables and fish year-round to feed thousands of people. Employing young people from the neighboring housing project and community, Growing Power has sought to prove that local food systems can help troubled youths, dismantle racism, create jobs, bring urban and rural communities closer together, and improve public health. The Good Food Revolution is the story of Allen’s personal journey, the lives he has touched, and a grassroots movement that is changing the way our nation eats.

MOTHER EARTH NEWS Stage | Saturday, 2:30-3:30 PM

Speaker BioWill Allen is an urban farmer who is transforming the cultivation, production and delivery of healthy foods to underserved urban populations. In 2008, he received the MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant, only the second farmer to be so honored. In 2011, Allen was named one of the World’s Most Powerful Foodies by Michael Pollan and Forbes Magazine. He is a member of the Clinton Global Initiative and was invited to the White House to join first lady Michelle Obama in launching her “Let’s Move” leadership program to reverse the epidemic of childhood obesity in America. Allen was inducted in the Atlantic Coast Conference Hall of Legends and received the Theodore Roosevelt Award from the NCAA, the highest honor that can be bestowed on a collegiate athlete. Allen is also the author of an award-winning autobiography, The Good Food Revolution, and has been bestowed with five honorary doctorates.

More than 150 Workshops!

Build a Home Charcuterie Cabinet

Meredith Leigh New Society Publishers

Use an old refrigerator, humidifier and a few tricks to rig up a cabinet for curing meats at home.

GRIT Stage | Sunday, 4:00-5:00 PM

Speaker Bio

Meredith Leigh is a die-hard advocate for good food. She has spent her working life as an activist, farmer, cook, butcher, writer and teacher, all in service of real, sustainable food. She is currently writing a book about meat, to be published in late 2015 by New Society Publishers.

Home Poultry Processing: The art and science of micro-scale meat bird processing … using tools you already have

Patricia Foreman The Gossamer Foundation

Learn how to humanely, safely, sanitarily and skillfully process your birds. What to do with those roosters and older hens? Get healthy, high-quality meat and bone broth from your backyard flock. Topics include:

The power of knowing your meat source, how it was raised, fed and processed

The sacred significance of taking a life … so that you can live

The science and chemistry behind skilled meat processing

Processing equipment that you have … or could easily borrow

Hand-plucking made fun

Super simple evisceration and an educational anatomy lesson

Nutritional differences of meat from heritage vs. commercial breeds

Cold shorting and effective freezer packaging for long-term storage

Processing your own chickens for family food is a lost art in our culture. It’s time to bring back this old tradition and combine it with new techniques, so that poultry processing becomes common knowledge in homes and communities.

The Livestock Conservancy Stage | Saturday, 4:00-5:00 PM

Speaker Bio

Patricia Foreman graduated from Purdue University with degrees in animal science and pharmacy. She earned a Masters of Public Affairs (MPA) from Indiana University’s Graduate School of Public and Environmental Affairs. She is the author of City Chicks: Employing Chickens as Garden Helpers, Compost Creators, Bio-recyclers and Local Food Suppliers. She is co-author of Chicken Tractor, Day Range Poultry and Backyard Market Gardening. Foreman is the developer of the Chickens and You Training Series (www.ChickensAndYOU.com), leading to the Master Backyard Chicken Keeper Certification.

Virtual Medicine Walk

Dawn Combs Mockingbird Meadows

In the world of healing plants, there are popular herbs that almost everyone has heard of…and then there are those that have been forgotten. These are plants that were well-known by our ancestors but were overlooked as we began to depend more on Western medicine. Take a virtual walk through the windbreaks, abandoned railways and fence-lines where these medicinals still thrive. Listen to their stories while learning how we may begin to use their medicine yet today.

Speaker Bio

Dawn Combs is an ethnobotanist with more than 20 years of experience in her field. She is the owner of the herbal health farm Mockingbird Meadows, is a contributor for Mother Earth Living, and the author of Heal Local: 20 Essential Herbs for Do-it-Yourself Home Health Care and Conceiving Healthy Babies: An Herbal Guide to Support Preconception, Pregnancy and Lactation.

DIY Solar

Dan and Don Adams Earthineer

We all would like to be off the grid, but the costs are prohibitive … or are they? Dan and Don Adams have been building their own solar panels for years. They go step by step through building your own system, the decisions they made, and how they trimmed thousands off the price. This year, they are talking about making their own batteries.

GRIT Stage | Sunday, 1:00-2:00 P

Speaker Bio

Dan Adams is the founder of Earthineer, a peer-to-peer social marketplace for food and farm. Don Adams is an electrical engineer, and is responsible for much of the more technical DIY content on Earthineer.

Seed Libraries and Other Seed Share Initiatives

Cindy Conner New Society Publishers

Seed saving and sharing programs might involve public libraries, but not necessarily. Learn about promoting seed sharing initiatives in your community through seed libraries, seed swaps and seed gardens. Cindy Conner’s book Seed Libraries and Other Means of Keeping Seeds in the Hands of the People is new in 2015.
Organic Gardening Stage | Sunday, 10:00-11:00 AMSpeaker Bio
Cindy Conner researches how to sustainably grow a complete diet in a small space at her home near Ashland, Virginia, and has produced the videos Develop a Sustainable Vegetable Garden Plan and Cover Crops and Compost Crops IN Your Garden. A former market gardener, Conner was instrumental in establishing the sustainable agriculture program at J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College in Goochland, Virginia, and taught there from 1999 to 2010. Her book Grow a Sustainable Diet: Planning and Growing to Feed Ourselves and the Earth was published in 2014. Seed Libraries and Other Means of Keeping Seeds in the Hands of the People is new in 2015. Follow Conner’s blog at www.HomeplaceEarth.wordpress.com.

New Frontiers in Organic Gardening

Barbara Pleasant MOTHER EARTH NEWS

Choosing the best crops and varieties are basic to growing great fruits and veggies, but you must also plan ahead to manage pests and diseases. In this lively “news-you-can-use” session, MOTHER EARTH NEWS Contributing Editor Barbara Pleasant shares a fresh crop of organic gardening tips and techniques to help you garden better than ever.

Organic Gardening Stage | Sunday, 11:30-12:30 PM

Speaker BioOne of MOTHER EARTH NEWS’ most experienced garden editors, Barbara Pleasant (www.BarbaraPleasant.com) has practiced organic vegetable gardening for 30 years in a wide variety of settings. The author of numerous books (including Starter Vegetable Gardens and The Complete Compost Gardening Guide), Pleasant pens the popular Garden Know-How column in MOTHER EARTH NEWS (which won a Silver Award of Achievement from the Garden Writers Association in 2013). She lives in Floyd, Virginia, where she grows vegetables, herbs, fruits and flowers, and keeps a small flock of chickens.

Mycoremediation and Recycling and Composting of Home and Farm Waste Using Mushrooms

Tradd Cotter Mushroom Mountain

Are you wondering how you can help reduce pollution and lessen your impact on landfills? Join Tradd Cotter to learn how to grow edible mushrooms on trash you thought you couldn’t compost! Turn cardboard, cereal boxes and more into fresh mushrooms, and then add your leftover “fungus farm” to your garden to attract worms and enrich the soil. Create a circular system that’s a winner! Many species of edible and medicinal mushrooms sweat powerful enzymes into the environment as they grow, capable of molecular disassembly of complex molecules such as hydrocarbons, aromatic chlorinated compounds, and pesticides. Mushrooms native to your area of the United States are also well-adapted to filter, stun and destroy pathogenic bacteria that accompany failing septic systems, manure holding ponds, and even pet waste runoff. Hear about easy, turnkey projects from beginner to advanced that anyone can do.

Modern Homesteading Stage | Sunday, 2:30-3:30 PM

Speaker Bio

Tradd Cotter is a microbiologist, professional mycologist and organic gardener who has been tissue culturing, collecting native fungi in the Southeast, and cultivating both commercially and experimentally for more than 22 years. Cotter is the author of Organic Mushroom Farming and Mycoremediation, published by Chelsea Green in 2014. In 1996, he founded Mushroom Mountain, which he owns and operates with his wife, Olga, to explore applications for mushrooms in various industries. He currently maintains more than 200 species of fungi for food production, mycoremediation of environmental pollutants, and natural alternatives to chemical pesticides.

Speaker Spotlight:

Can Do Easy Canning

Nan K. Chase Storey Publishing

Discover how safe, easy and economical it is to preserve food and beverages by canning. Nothing makes a family more secure than having a well-stocked pantry, and canning ensures that no one runs short even during paralyzing blizzards, power outages or other disruptions. This proven method helps cut energy use and curb global pollution: Why drive to a grocery store when you already have your favorite foods as close as your cupboard! Canning the surplus cuts waste when you have a large harvest, and provides a way to combine and preserve your best crops in imaginative ways. The workshop covers equipment, sanitation practices and step-by-step techniques.

MOTHER EARTH NEWS Stage | Saturday, 11:30-12:30 PM

Speaker BioNan K. Chase is the co-author, with DeNeice C. Guest, of Drink the Harvest: Making and Preserving Juices, Wines, Meads, Teas and Ciders, and the author of Eat Your Yard! With more than 30 years of home canning experience, Chase has canned everything from applesauce to prickly pear cactus juice, providing her family and friends with delicious, nutritious, and memorable food and beverage. Originally an investigative reporter for a small town newspaper in North Carolina, with several press association awards to her credit, Chase has also written for such publications as The New York Times and Southern Living, and she took home a blue ribbon for her crabapple jelly at the North Carolina Mountain State Fair. She lectures extensively on garden topics, and the rest of the time tends to her garden in Asheville, North Carolina.

10 Threads That Successful Startup Farms Knit Together

Joel Salatin Polyface Farm

Some farm startups flounder and others fly. The ones that successfully get off the ground share common characteristics. In this extremely practical presentation, Pitchfork Pulpit farmer Joel Salatin explains these threads. From emotional conceptions about the land to time and motion studies, this far-ranging performance gives everyone a farm road map to success.

Speaker BioJoel Salatin is a third-generation, beyond organic farmer and author whose family owns and operates Polyface Farm in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. The farm produces salad bar beef, pigaerator pork, pastured poultry and forage-based rabbits, and direct markets everything to 5,000 families, 50 restaurants and 10 retail outlets. A prolific author, Salatin’s nine books to date include both how-to and big picture themes. The farm features prominently in Michael Pollan’s New York Times best-seller The Omnivore’s Dilemma and the award-winning documentary Food, Inc.

Backyard Biodiesel: How to brew your own fuel

Lyle Estill Piedmont Biofuels

Lyle Estill (author of Backyard Biodiesel, out in the spring of 2015) demonstrates how to produce biodiesel from used fryer oil and discuss ways of integrating the practice into your resilience efforts at home or on-farm.

Speaker BioLyle Estill is the president and co-founder of Piedmont Biofuels, a community-scale biodiesel project in Pittsboro, North Carolina. He has been on the vanguard of social change for the past decade, which has placed him at the heart of the sustainability movement. Estill is a prolific speaker and writer, and the author of Small Stories, Big Changes, Industrial Evolution, Small Is Possible and Biodiesel Power. He has won numerous awards for his commitment to resilience, community development, outreach and leadership. Bob Armantrout helped to manage four commercial biodiesel plants in Hawaii, Colorado and Texas before moving to Pittsboro, North Carolina, in 2007 to join Piedmont Biofuels. He worked as an instructor at Central Carolina Community College, where he designed and delivered an innovative two-year biofuels degree program. When he is not immersed in the fascinating world of alternative fuels, Armantrout gardens organically to maintain his sanity, and explores the world of mycelium through mushroom and tempeh production.

Perma-What? How you can create your own paradise homestead with permaculture

Jessi Bloom N.W. Bloom EcoLogical Landscapes

What is permaculture and can it help us to create a more sustainable future? Jessi Bloom shares step-by-step instructions, plus her favorite tips, inspirations and great plants for beautiful and abundant homesteads and lives!

MOTHER EARTH NEWS Stage | Saturday, 10:00-11:00 AM

Speaker Bio

Jessi Bloom is a best-selling author, award-winning ecological designer, Certified Professional Horticulturist and ISA-Certified Arborist who strongly emphasizes ecological systems, sustainability and self-sufficiency in her work. She is passionate about animals, permaculture and making functional gardens beautiful!

30-Minute Farmers’ Cheese Flavored with Herbs and Edible Flowers

Claudia Lucero Urban Cheesecraft

Best-selling author of One-Hour Cheese, Claudia Lucero demonstrates how easy and fun it can be to make a delicious and simple farmers’ cheese in just 30 minutes. See the entire process from carton of milk to final cheese and then to flavoring and decorating with fresh and dry herbs and edible flowers.

Speaker BioClaudia Lucero enjoys getting new cheesemakers started with Urban Cheesecraft and her D.I.Y. Cheese Kits. She has partnered with Williams-Sonoma on custom cheesemaking kits and recently wrote the book One-Hour Cheese, which shows beginners how to make 16 fresh cheeses via step-by-step photos. The book is found where books are sold and the kits can be found on www.UrbanCheesecraft.com.

Stephanie Tourles Storey Publishing

Come hear author, licensed holistic aesthetician and herbalist Stephanie Tourles discuss recipes from her best-selling book, Organic Body Care Recipes. Learn the history of using natural oils on the body; sources of oil; the skin and its need for oil; benefits of plant-derived base oils and essential oils; how to make body and facial oils; and the nutritional benefits of adding quality oil to the diet. Product samples will be available.

MOTHER EARTH NEWS Stage | Saturday, 11:30-12:30 PM

Booksigning: Saturday, 12:30-1:00 PM

Speaker Bio

Stephanie Tourles is a licensed holistic aesthetician, certified aromatherapist, and gardener with training in Western and Ayurvedic herbalism. She is the author of 10 books, including Raw Energy in a Glass, Hands-On Healing Remedies, Organic Body Care Recipes, Raw Energy, Naturally Healthy Skin, 365 Ways to Energize Mind, Body and Soul, and Natural Foot Care. She lives in Orland, Maine.

More than 150 Workshops!

Seed Libraries and Other Seed Share Initiatives

Cindy Conner New Society Publishers

Seed saving and sharing programs might involve public libraries, but not necessarily. Learn about promoting seed sharing initiatives in your community through seed libraries, seed swaps and seed gardens. Cindy Conner’s book Seed Libraries and Other Means of Keeping Seeds in the Hands of the People is new in 2015.
Organic Gardening Stage | Sunday, 10:00-11:00 AMSpeaker Bio
Cindy Conner researches how to sustainably grow a complete diet in a small space at her home near Ashland, Virginia, and has produced the videos Develop a Sustainable Vegetable Garden Plan and Cover Crops and Compost Crops IN Your Garden. A former market gardener, Conner was instrumental in establishing the sustainable agriculture program at J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College in Goochland, Virginia, and taught there from 1999 to 2010. Her book Grow a Sustainable Diet: Planning and Growing to Feed Ourselves and the Earth was published in 2014. Seed Libraries and Other Means of Keeping Seeds in the Hands of the People is new in 2015. Follow Conner’s blog at www.HomeplaceEarth.wordpress.com.

Home Poultry Processing: The art and science of micro-scale meat bird processing … using tools you already have

Patricia Foreman The Gossamer Foundation

Learn how to humanely, safely, sanitarily and skillfully process your birds. What to do with those roosters and older hens? Get healthy, high-quality meat and bone broth from your backyard flock. Topics include:

The power of knowing your meat source, how it was raised, fed and processed

The sacred significance of taking a life … so that you can live

The science and chemistry behind skilled meat processing

Processing equipment that you have … or could easily borrow

Hand-plucking made fun

Super simple evisceration and an educational anatomy lesson

Nutritional differences of meat from heritage vs. commercial breeds

Cold shorting and effective freezer packaging for long-term storage

Processing your own chickens for family food is a lost art in our culture. It’s time to bring back this old tradition and combine it with new techniques, so that poultry processing becomes common knowledge in homes and communities.

The Livestock Conservancy Stage | Saturday, 4:00-5:00 PM

Speaker Bio

Patricia Foreman graduated from Purdue University with degrees in animal science and pharmacy. She earned a Masters of Public Affairs (MPA) from Indiana University’s Graduate School of Public and Environmental Affairs. She is the author of City Chicks: Employing Chickens as Garden Helpers, Compost Creators, Bio-recyclers and Local Food Suppliers. She is co-author of Chicken Tractor, Day Range Poultry and Backyard Market Gardening. Foreman is the developer of the Chickens and You Training Series (www.ChickensAndYOU.com), leading to the Master Backyard Chicken Keeper Certification.

Virtual Medicine Walk

Dawn Combs Mockingbird Meadows

In the world of healing plants, there are popular herbs that almost everyone has heard of…and then there are those that have been forgotten. These are plants that were well-known by our ancestors but were overlooked as we began to depend more on Western medicine. Take a virtual walk through the windbreaks, abandoned railways and fence-lines where these medicinals still thrive. Listen to their stories while learning how we may begin to use their medicine yet today.

Speaker Bio

Dawn Combs is an ethnobotanist with more than 20 years of experience in her field. She is the owner of the herbal health farm Mockingbird Meadows, is a contributor for Mother Earth Living, and the author of Heal Local: 20 Essential Herbs for Do-it-Yourself Home Health Care and Conceiving Healthy Babies: An Herbal Guide to Support Preconception, Pregnancy and Lactation.

Speaker Spotlight:

10 Threads That Successful Startup Farms Knit Together

Joel Salatin Polyface Farm

Some farm startups flounder and others fly. The ones that successfully get off the ground share common characteristics. In this extremely practical presentation, Pitchfork Pulpit farmer Joel Salatin explains these threads. From emotional conceptions about the land to time and motion studies, this far-ranging performance gives everyone a farm road map to success.

Speaker BioJoel Salatin is a third-generation, beyond organic farmer and author whose family owns and operates Polyface Farm in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. The farm produces salad bar beef, pigaerator pork, pastured poultry and forage-based rabbits, and direct markets everything to 5,000 families, 50 restaurants and 10 retail outlets. A prolific author, Salatin’s nine books to date include both how-to and big picture themes. The farm features prominently in Michael Pollan’s New York Times best-seller The Omnivore’s Dilemma and the award-winning documentary Food, Inc.

Backyard Biodiesel: How to brew your own fuel

Lyle Estill Piedmont Biofuels

Lyle Estill (author of Backyard Biodiesel, out in the spring of 2015) demonstrates how to produce biodiesel from used fryer oil and discuss ways of integrating the practice into your resilience efforts at home or on-farm.

Speaker BioLyle Estill is the president and co-founder of Piedmont Biofuels, a community-scale biodiesel project in Pittsboro, North Carolina. He has been on the vanguard of social change for the past decade, which has placed him at the heart of the sustainability movement. Estill is a prolific speaker and writer, and the author of Small Stories, Big Changes, Industrial Evolution, Small Is Possible and Biodiesel Power. He has won numerous awards for his commitment to resilience, community development, outreach and leadership. Bob Armantrout helped to manage four commercial biodiesel plants in Hawaii, Colorado and Texas before moving to Pittsboro, North Carolina, in 2007 to join Piedmont Biofuels. He worked as an instructor at Central Carolina Community College, where he designed and delivered an innovative two-year biofuels degree program. When he is not immersed in the fascinating world of alternative fuels, Armantrout gardens organically to maintain his sanity, and explores the world of mycelium through mushroom and tempeh production.

Perma-What? How you can create your own paradise homestead with permaculture

Jessi Bloom N.W. Bloom EcoLogical Landscapes

What is permaculture and can it help us to create a more sustainable future? Jessi Bloom shares step-by-step instructions, plus her favorite tips, inspirations and great plants for beautiful and abundant homesteads and lives!

MOTHER EARTH NEWS Stage | Saturday, 10:00-11:00 AM

Speaker Bio

Jessi Bloom is a best-selling author, award-winning ecological designer, Certified Professional Horticulturist and ISA-Certified Arborist who strongly emphasizes ecological systems, sustainability and self-sufficiency in her work. She is passionate about animals, permaculture and making functional gardens beautiful!

30-Minute Farmers’ Cheese Flavored with Herbs and Edible Flowers

Claudia Lucero Urban Cheesecraft

Best-selling author of One-Hour Cheese, Claudia Lucero demonstrates how easy and fun it can be to make a delicious and simple farmers’ cheese in just 30 minutes. See the entire process from carton of milk to final cheese and then to flavoring and decorating with fresh and dry herbs and edible flowers.

Speaker BioClaudia Lucero enjoys getting new cheesemakers started with Urban Cheesecraft and her D.I.Y. Cheese Kits. She has partnered with Williams-Sonoma on custom cheesemaking kits and recently wrote the book One-Hour Cheese, which shows beginners how to make 16 fresh cheeses via step-by-step photos. The book is found where books are sold and the kits can be found on www.UrbanCheesecraft.com.

More than 150 Workshops!

DIY Solar

Dan and Don Adams Earthineer

We all would like to be off the grid, but the costs are prohibitive … or are they? Dan and Don Adams have been building their own solar panels for years. They go step by step through building your own system, the decisions they made, and how they trimmed thousands off the price. This year, they are talking about making their own batteries.

GRIT Stage | Sunday, 1:00-2:00 P

Speaker Bio

Dan Adams is the founder of Earthineer, a peer-to-peer social marketplace for food and farm. Don Adams is an electrical engineer, and is responsible for much of the more technical DIY content on Earthineer.

Home Poultry Processing: The art and science of micro-scale meat bird processing … using tools you already have

Patricia Foreman The Gossamer Foundation

Learn how to humanely, safely, sanitarily and skillfully process your birds. What to do with those roosters and older hens? Get healthy, high-quality meat and bone broth from your backyard flock. Topics include:

The power of knowing your meat source, how it was raised, fed and processed

The sacred significance of taking a life … so that you can live

The science and chemistry behind skilled meat processing

Processing equipment that you have … or could easily borrow

Hand-plucking made fun

Super simple evisceration and an educational anatomy lesson

Nutritional differences of meat from heritage vs. commercial breeds

Cold shorting and effective freezer packaging for long-term storage

Processing your own chickens for family food is a lost art in our culture. It’s time to bring back this old tradition and combine it with new techniques, so that poultry processing becomes common knowledge in homes and communities.

The Livestock Conservancy Stage | Saturday, 4:00-5:00 PM

Speaker Bio

Patricia Foreman graduated from Purdue University with degrees in animal science and pharmacy. She earned a Masters of Public Affairs (MPA) from Indiana University’s Graduate School of Public and Environmental Affairs. She is the author of City Chicks: Employing Chickens as Garden Helpers, Compost Creators, Bio-recyclers and Local Food Suppliers. She is co-author of Chicken Tractor, Day Range Poultry and Backyard Market Gardening. Foreman is the developer of the Chickens and You Training Series (www.ChickensAndYOU.com), leading to the Master Backyard Chicken Keeper Certification.

Seed Libraries and Other Seed Share Initiatives

Cindy Conner New Society Publishers

Seed saving and sharing programs might involve public libraries, but not necessarily. Learn about promoting seed sharing initiatives in your community through seed libraries, seed swaps and seed gardens. Cindy Conner’s book Seed Libraries and Other Means of Keeping Seeds in the Hands of the People is new in 2015.
Organic Gardening Stage | Sunday, 10:00-11:00 AMSpeaker Bio
Cindy Conner researches how to sustainably grow a complete diet in a small space at her home near Ashland, Virginia, and has produced the videos Develop a Sustainable Vegetable Garden Plan and Cover Crops and Compost Crops IN Your Garden. A former market gardener, Conner was instrumental in establishing the sustainable agriculture program at J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College in Goochland, Virginia, and taught there from 1999 to 2010. Her book Grow a Sustainable Diet: Planning and Growing to Feed Ourselves and the Earth was published in 2014. Seed Libraries and Other Means of Keeping Seeds in the Hands of the People is new in 2015. Follow Conner’s blog at www.HomeplaceEarth.wordpress.com.

Virtual Medicine Walk

Dawn Combs Mockingbird Meadows

In the world of healing plants, there are popular herbs that almost everyone has heard of…and then there are those that have been forgotten. These are plants that were well-known by our ancestors but were overlooked as we began to depend more on Western medicine. Take a virtual walk through the windbreaks, abandoned railways and fence-lines where these medicinals still thrive. Listen to their stories while learning how we may begin to use their medicine yet today.

Speaker Bio

Dawn Combs is an ethnobotanist with more than 20 years of experience in her field. She is the owner of the herbal health farm Mockingbird Meadows, is a contributor for Mother Earth Living, and the author of Heal Local: 20 Essential Herbs for Do-it-Yourself Home Health Care and Conceiving Healthy Babies: An Herbal Guide to Support Preconception, Pregnancy and Lactation.

Bringing the Magazine to Life!

At the MOTHER EARTH NEWS FAIR, you’ll discover a dazzling array of workshops and lectures designed to get you further down the path to independence and self-reliance. Whether you want to learn how to grow and raise your own food, build your own root cellar, or create a green dream home, come out and learn everything you need to know — and then some!

Each MOTHER EARTH NEWS FAIR features:

More than 150 workshops from the leading authorities on organic gardening, food preservation, homesteading and livestock, green building, and natural health.

Great deals from more than 200 regional and national exhibitors that feature sustainable products and services.

Off-Stage Demos – With topics ranging from hands-on seed saving to building mud houses to heritage breed livestock, there is a lot to see!